Find Her

Steven now floated in darkness. He couldn't stop thinking about what he just saw. Black Diamond was real. And there was a time, White Diamond wasn't what she was now. Steven could feel it. Her confusion, her fear, and her joy when she saw Black Diamond.

"White Diamond was happy," Steven said, "But she isn't like that now."

Because Black is no longer with her.

"Who said that?" Steven yelped at the sudden voice. The voice didn't answer but it did continue

White was once capable of love and compassion, not just for Black, but for other gems. But as time went on, the first gems born began to shatter. White learned to create more gems to replace them. But she came to learn the hard way, the new gems she created were not the ones she lost. Then, she lost Black Diamond. White couldn't live with her loss. So, she sealed her emotions away. Now an emotionless ruler, she lives to create gems and expand her empire. Always taking, but nothing is able to fill the hole in her soul, not even the new Diamonds.

Steven was silent for a moment, "That's so sad. When Black was shattered, she fell into grief." This was even stronger than the grief that gripped Yellow and Blue.

Black isn't shattered, she's still alive.

"Huh? But you said…"

I said, White lost Black, I never said she died.

"So, if I find Black Diamond. Maybe she can help White, then they can help the corrupted gems?"

… It won't be guaranteed. But, White still loves Black to this day. If you find her, she might finally return to her original self… Might.

That didn't sound reassuring, but if there was a chance, he was going to take, however…

"But, where is she? Where on home world is Black Diamond?"

"Black Diamond isn't on Homeworld, she's on the planet where the first gems were made."

"Wait, that's not Homeworld?" Steven asked confused.

No!

Steven opened his eyes. He was currently laying on a big purple mattress.

"Steven," Connie said as he sat up, "Did it work."

The half gem got off the mattress. Then said mattress turned into Amethyst.

"I think so," Steven recalled, "I think, I saw White Diamond's first memories."

"And…"

"Well, there was another gem at the beginning," Steven said, "She… I think she was Black Diamond."

That made everyone in the room quiet.

"Steven are you sure?" Pearl asked breaking the silence.

"She had all the traits of a Diamond," Steven said, "She was as big as White, she had diamond shaped pupils. And her gem was the same, shape, cut, even the same place, her forehead."

"What was she like?" Amethyst asked.

"Well," Steven thought, "It was their first few minutes but…" Steven recalled her curious expression. Her gentle smile, and the way she laughed, "She seemed really nice."

"But what happened to her?" Garnet asked.

"Well, a voice told me, that she was lost to White. Not shattered, but missing. It said she was on the planet where gemkind was born."

"But it will take forever to search Homeworld," Amethyst whined.

"Well… the voice said, Homeworld isn't where gems were born," Steven said.

"What?" Pearl asked, "That's impossible."

"Is it?" Amethyst asked, "Were you there at the dawn of gems?"

"Well…" Pearl said.

"That still doesn't help us," Garnet said, "How are we supposed to find her?"

Before anyone could speak, let alone come up with another answer. The white orb appeared in the room, revealing White's Pearl.

"Pink Diamond," the pearl spoke in her empty tone, "Your presence is resquested."

White Pearl began to glide over to Steven. Steven held up his arms, "Wait! I want them to come with me." He gestured towards his friends.

"This is a meeting for Diamonds only," White Pearl stated.

"I don't care," Steven said, "I'm a Diamond too. So what I say goes, and I say they can come!" Steven remembered Bismuth's advice, You have to roar louder than any of them.

Steven didn't want to be rude, but he needed to get White Diamond's attention somehow. White Diamond stopped, for a few minutes she was just… there. Still as can be. Then she began to glow, it would had been beautiful, if the cracks on the Pearls face didn't grow. Steven began to panic, "Are you okay? What's-…"

"Very well," the Pearl responded, "Please gather together."

"But what about you are you?"

"Steven," Pearl placed a hand on his shoulder, "We need to go."

Everyone gathered together in one spot, but Steven couldn't stop looking at White Pearl Even as she took them to White Diamond. Why did her cracks get worse? Did White Diamond do that? Just because he wanted his friends to go with him?

They arrived in White Diamond's audience chamber. Naturally, the head Diamond was there, but so were Yellow and Blue, they both looked nervous. Despite the fact he brought his friends, White didn't seem to care or even notice them.

"Hello Pink," White smiled, her voice was calm and warm, like a grandmother, but Steven knew better. Her pearl's state still in his mind.

"You- you wanted to see me?" Steven asked.

"Yes starlight," at least she letting him talk this time, "Now that you're back, I think its time to get back to work."

Steven swallowed. He was pretty sure he knew what White wanted.

"Um… work?"

"That's right," White replied, "Now that you got everything out of your system, its time to do your duty. We still need more gems, and your colony has just been sitting there incomplete. You need to finish it, dear."

"But, I didn't come here for that. The gems on Earth have been corrupted, we need your help to heal them," Steven explained.

"Oh Pink, they're just common gems, they're easily replaceable," White simply said.

Steven's eyes widened in horror, "How can you say that? They were loyal to you, cared about you."

"As they should," White said, "But they are still replaceable, there are thousands of them but only four of us. We mustn't get attached to them so easily."

Steven felt himself getting mad, "Is that how you see them? Is that why you hurt your pearl like that?"

"Now Pink, I don't see how that's your concern, she's my pearl after all."

"She is hurt!" Steven shouted, "You're the one hurting her, even though she did what you told her to without complaint. I'm making it my concern."

"Pink, calm down," Yellow demanded, but she backed away, when White's eyes fell on her. After a moment of silence White looked back to Steven.

"Pink, I know you've been gone for a long time," White said, "But allow me to remind you this is how things are. It is how it should be." During the last sentence, something was, behind White Diamond's voice. Something hollow as her eyes narrowed for a moment, "Now about your colony, we'll-…"

"No!" Steven shouted, silencing the larger gem, "I'm not colonizing Earth, I'm not colonizing any planets!" His mother couldn't stand up to them. But Steven loved Earth, probably more than Pink Diamond. So, he was going to do what she didn't do, stand up to the authority.

"Pink," White began, "I know it can be hard to colonize a planet, but-…"

"That has nothing to do with it!" Steven yelled again, "Mom, Pink Diamond didn't colonize Earth, not because it was hard, because she loved it the way it was. Alive, full of humans, plants, and animals. She tried to tell you all that, but none of you listened."

"Pink," Blue began, "We made the zoo so-…"

"That isn't living," Steven said, "That's being trapped. They aren't free! I won't colonize the planet, I won't put humans in the zoo, and I won't let you do any of that either." Steven shouted the last part, "The Earth is my home, and if it is really my planet than I want to give it to the crystal gems and the humans. I want to live there," he looked at White Diamond in the eye, "I won't let the Earth be colonized, gems, humans, it doesn't matter, all life is important!"

That last exclamation did something. It broke White Diamond's expression. Her calm smiling face was gone. Replaced by surprised shock. She looked at Steven, her arms began to tremble. Something the other Diamonds noticed.

"White?" Yellow asked cautiously.

Faster than anyone realized, White shot her right arm towards Steven. Out of reflex, Steven's bubble appeared around him. Then there was a bright white light.

"Steven!"

"Pink!"

Steven was forced back, pain wrecking through his whole body. He started to fall through darkness, he heard voices in the distance, but he was so dazed he couldn't make out what they were saying.

"Steven are you okay?"

"White calm down!"

As Steven fell through the darkness he saw images, two shadows. One of them looked like White Diamond, the other was… Steven didn't know. But he knew it was the same height as White, and it looked like a long haired woman wearing a sun dress. And they were arguing. Steven couldn't hear them, but they were still moving.

"All of you take Pink and run!"

The two shadows kept arguing. There was dramatic arm waving, finger pointing, and by the way their jaws were moving, yelling. Until both figures were just standing there breathing heavily. The figure that wasn't White Diamond began to speak again. By the body language, it was more gentle. After a few minutes she stopped, and White Diamond nodded her head. The long haired one turned and began to walk away from White Diamond. But then Steven saw something, he saw tears, running down White Diamond's shadow. Then she threw her trembling hand forward. A bright light shot forth, hitting the other figure. Steven heard a scream as her body was blown away like sand in the wind. Leaving only a gem that fell from where her head was a moment prior.

White Diamond walked forward. Her trembling hand reached down and touched the gem. A bubble quickly formed around the gem. White tapped the top and suddenly, Steven was flying through space. The stars whirred past him, finally he stopped. He looked around, he saw three sun's circling each other. He looked into the cosmos he saw a large array of stars, but he saw that out of all of them there were three stars that stood out. One was red, another was green, another was blue. He looked back at the suns when he realized a something was blocking the light. It was a planet. A large planet was moving in front of the suns in orbit. Then Steen was shot towards the planets surface, stopping just a few inches above the ground.

"I really don't want to be a pancake," He looked around and his eyes widened. He knew where he was, it was the canyon where White and Blake came from. When he looked around he saw their holes, then he saw something floating between them. A large white bubble, floating inside was a giant… "Black Diamond."